Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Henry is a drifter living in a run-down Chicago apartment with Otis, a man he knew from prison. He works as an exterminator and moves through the city largely invisible, killing strangers — a group of women, a TV salesman — with no pattern and no apparent motive. Otis's younger sister Becky arrives fleeing an abusive husband in the South, and she and Henry form a tentative, almost tender connection.

Henry introduces Otis to killing, and the two begin targeting victims together. The film's most disturbing sequence arrives when they record a home invasion murder on a stolen camcorder, then replay the footage on their living room television. The violence is staged without music or tension-building — flat, sudden, and awful.

When Otis attempts to sexually assault Becky, Henry kills him, dismembers the body, and dumps it in the river. He and Becky pack their things and leave Chicago together, and for a moment the film seems to offer something different. But the next morning, Henry is driving alone. He pulls over and sets a suitcase by the side of the road — Becky's suitcase — and drives on. Nothing is explained.